The present invention relates to a bobbin holder.
More particularly, this invention concerns bobbin holders in thread winding machines.
It is known in the art to provide an elongated support for a set of two or more bobbins and a number of cutting members equal to the number of bobbins. It is very essential that such cutting members do not interfere with either the withdrawal of the filled bobbins from the support or the installing of new empty bobbins on the support. This is especially important in applications where the process of winding the thread onto the bobbins must not be interrupted so that automatic thread transfer from a full bobbin to an empty one, and replacement of the full bobbin with another empty bobbin, must be employed.
An analogous arrangement, see for example German allowed application No. 24 55 116, includes a cutting member which is covered by a movable bobbin holder. To render such a construction possible it is necessary to provide the holder with a groove for receiving the cutting member and a spacer to prevent the cutting member from moving away from the holder. In order to cut the thread, the same has to be displaced inside the holder. Such a thread is subject to becoming slack when a drop of the speed of this thread takes place. Such slack disappears only when the thread tension subsequently increases again rapidly, so that the thread is pulled onto the cutters and tears off. As a result, one end of the thread, sometimes even a small loop, extends between the holder and the cutting element. During withdrawing of the bobbin from the holder this end of the thread can be caught and becomes untangled. Also, before installing a new empty bobbin torn-off thread pieces must be removed. Furthermore, in the prior art the thread is not cut but is torn off across the sharp edges of the cutting element.